Methodology

Firstly, specific string research on companies in North America and Europe was done but unfortunately yielded minimal results. As such, analyzing articles that talked about trends in the industry and companies, on a general note was completed as a follow-up. The trends listed are categorized under no specific order, with the companies identified being analyzed thoroughly to find the trends and innovations that they are currently following or planning to integrate.

Secondly, data on competing clients and industries in European and North American market were reviewed with the specific focus on top review sites that are common and relevant to existing trends. The companies looked at having a global presence and therefore apply to the specific criteria set. Upon searching, it was understood that trends could be gleaned from websites that discussed the industry specifically. So logically, general trends uncovered from the articles that do not specifically mention any deviance in European or North American markets were specifically noted. For example, France and Germany are traditional in putting up reviews and prefer their websites.

Analysis

When looking at the review culture, companies have now gone the extra mile in making sure that they get as much traffic onto their website as possible, one of the tools that are currently being used is leveraging subject matter experts. This means changing passive users into influencers and advocates for certain products in their respective industry. By offering peer-to-peer support, they enable for content to stay relevant and response times to customers to be quicker in comparison to feedback from customer support representatives. This is key when taking into consideration that over 50% of customers trust user produced content and reviews versus company material. In addition, 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

The way a company deals with feedback, be it positive or negative, is important and that is why having an integrated mobile platform and advanced two-way conversation is fundamental. When looking at an integrated mobile platform, be it Android or IOS, what's imoprtant is that 80% of internet users own a smartphone and use them to write and analyze written reviews and pictures. This may be for booking a place to eat or booking a trip to a different country. Today’s generation likes to review what other people said about their experiences and this mostly happens through their phones.

Advanced two-way conversation is also important as it adds to the user experience. While some companies still use customer service representatives, other companies have moved to AI integrated platforms, which give the answer to generic questions and connect the customer to a live person if a query is too complex. This is important as it allows for quicker response times and greater customer satisfaction.

Free subscription has also been a huge trend, especially when considering examples such as Facebook and Angie’s List. When Angie’s List had a paywall for subscriptions, they lost 90% of their traffic and experienced an increase in registrations by three to four times in places where they had the reviews on paywalls. What this brings to light is that free subscriptions are a key element to opening the door for people who use review platforms. If a price is placed on service, customers are less likely to place reviews which would mostly result in decreased product use.

Trustpilot - Customers and Industry Breakdown

There is no data available either pre-compiled or as a triangulation to explain what types of consumers typically leave reviews via TrustPilot and what the industry breakdown is. This is due to the fact that anyone analyzing the data would have to go through over 18,500,000 reviews in order to get a sense of consumer types who are using the site. However, I was able to find that consumers using TrustPilot are likely to have been invited to by a company. I also found statistics relating to the kind of people likely to leave reviews in general.

METHODOLOGY

In order to find out what types of consumers typically leave reviews via TrustPilot, I first searched for pre-compiled data on this topic. I looked through online articles, news stories and research papers. However, I found that this information was not available in these sources. In addition, I looked for pre-compiled data on the company's website, on their blog, press releases and case studies.

I found that TrustPilot receive around 20-30,000 reviews a day. This illustrates how difficult it would be to analyze the types of consumers that typically leave reviews. This explains why there is no pre-compiled data regarding this.

Next, I tried to triangulate the answer. I also looked through Capterra's reviews on TrustPilot, and filtered through reviews mentioning consumers or customers, and I did the same for their reviews on G2 Crowd. I intended to pick out frequently mentioned comments about the kinds of consumers that use TrustPilot, however these reviews offered no such data. I found that it is not possible to triangulate this answer, because there are literally too many reviews to look through, currently there are over 18,500,000. In addition, I considered looking at the type of companies who are partnered with TrustPilot, and providing an analysis of these customers, but again, there are a vast number (currently over 180,000 merchants in over 110 countries).

However, I was able to find some useful data that hints to what types of consumers typically leave reviews via TrustPilot may be, in addition I have found some evidence to suggest what the industry breakdown of TrustPilot customers is.

USEFUL FINDINGS

While I could not find a direct answer to your question, I was able to gather some information about this topic, which I think will be helpful for your project. To begin with, I have found that TrustPilot identify their business categories as follows: Animals & pets, art, clothes & fashion, cloud computing, computer & accessories, craftsman, electronics, entertainment, erotic, food & beverage, for companies, gambling, health & wellbeing, home & garden, kids, legal services, leisure, media & marketing, money, other, phone and internet services, public services, sport, tobacco products, transportation, travel & vacation and utilities. This means that consumers leaving reviews on the site fit into these categories.

In terms of what types of consumers typically leave reviews via TrustPilot, I found that TrustPilot markets itself to companies and encourages its clients to invite their customers to leave feedback. Therefore, consumers leaving feedback are likely to be those that have been asked to do so. Studies show that there is no one particular type of customer who respond positively to leaving feedback when they are asked to do so. Actually, most customers will (70%). Therefore, these invited customers may represent a range of types.

In regard to people who tend to leave customer reviews in general (not just specific to TrustPilot) we know that people who earn over $150,000 are 100% likely to leave a negative review when they experience poor customer service. In addition, 58% of all consumers say that they have increased the frequency at which they leave company reviews, and this was motivated by poor customer service.

90% of consumers who leave reviews do so to help fellow consumers make decisions. Despite perceptions, people are mostly motivated to leave feedback because they have had a good experience with a company, 51% report leaving positive feedback most times and 36% leaving positive feedback all the time. On the other hand, only 1% report leaving negative feedback every time, and 1% leaving negative feedback most times. The other 11% report being equally split.

Finally, I found that the age group most likely to post a review is the millennial 25-34 age group (52%), followed by the 16-24 age group (47%), 35-44 (45%), 45-54 (34%) and 55-64 (28%).

POSSIBLE CONTINED RESEARCH

In understanding what types of information are and are not publicly available on this topic, I’ve suggested a few other routes you may be interested in researching. For example, there is much data available surrounding the motivations that people have for leaving customer reviews in general (not specific to using TrustPilot), you may wish to explore this further. Also, there is a lot of data available about consumer behavior surrounding seeking out reviews on companies, this may also be of interest to you.

CONCLUSION

To sum up, I have found that there is no data available either pre-compiled or as a triangulation to explain what types of consumers typically leave reviews via TrustPilot and what the industry breakdown is. This is because the site has over 18,500,000 reviews, which is a lot of data to analyze in order to understand consumer types who are using the site. However, I was able to find that consumers using TrustPilot are likely to have been invited to by a company. Also, people who leave reviews in general are more likely to do so to leave positive feedback, and they are most likely to be aged between 25-34.